Rails & Rivals is a turn-based strategy board game in which 2-6 players build railroad networks on a hex grid, deliver colored goods between cities, and compete for the highest score. Players lay track tiles across terrain with varying costs, issue bonds for capital, upgrade their locomotive Engine, and industrialize gray towns into colored cities to create new delivery destinations. The game ends when a set number of cities are emptied, and the player with the most income track points wins.